Turtle Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans, Chocolate, and Medjool Dates

December 18, 2013Angela (Oh She Glows)

by Angela (Oh She Glows) on December 18, 2013

Let’s keep this holiday goodie train chuggin’ along, with a new cookie recipe that I made recently for a holiday get together. It’s inspired by the Turtles candy, with a nutty, “buttery” base of toasted pecans, caramel-like Medjool dates, and mini dark chocolate chips. They did not last long. I bet you’ve never had an oatmeal cookie quite like this one – it’s a keeper, for sure! I have to say, it replaces my oatmeal raisin cookies as the new reigning champion. And I didn’t think anything could top those.

Introducing the world’s best tasting cookie dough. Try it and see…

The cookies aren’t too shabby either! My favourite way to eat them is straight from the fridge or freezer. Weird, right? They get really firm and crispy when chilled – almost caramelized in texture – and I just can’t get enough.

For the full recipe, head on over to Keepin’ It Kind where I’m participating in Kristy’s Vegan Cookie Swap Party.

Edited to add: you can now find the recipe below:

4.7 from 32 reviews

Vegan "Turtle" Oatmeal Cookies

Vegan, gluten-free

By Angela Liddon

Inspired by one of my childhood favourite candies, these "Turtle" Oatmeal Cookies are studded with caramel-like Medjool dates and dark chocolate chips, all surrounded with a nutty toasted pecan and oat base. If you can stop eating the dough for long enough to bake them, you are in for a real treat. This sounds a bit strange, but my favourite way to enjoy these is straight from the fridge or freezer where the cookies get firm and crisp.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toast pecans for about 9-11 minutes, until golden and fragrant. After toasting, remove from oven and cool for a few minutes. Preheat the oven to 350F. Add pecans into food processor along with 1 cup of oats and process until coarsely chopped with some fine powder (see photo in blog post). Be sure not to over process or the oils in the nuts will release.

In a medium bowl, stir together the maple syrup, melted coconut oil, milk, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture on the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

In a small bowl, coat the chopped dates in 1/2-1 teaspoon of flour and toss until coated. This prevents the dates from sticking together. Fold the dates and chocolate chips into the dough.

Take about 2 tablespoons of dough, roll it into a ball, and then press down on it with your hand to flatten it on the baking sheet. Space cookies a couple inches apart. Repeat until you have about 16 cookies.

Bake for 12-13 minutes at 350F until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 3-4 mins before placing cookies onto a cooling rack for 15 minutes.

Tips:

Notes: 1) Instead of gluten-free all-purpose flour, you can probably swap it for regular all-purpose flour. Depending on the flour you use, the results can vary. 2) As for the gluten-free flour blend, I recommend using one that is rice based (such as Pamela's brand) and avoid using one that is garbanzo based (such as Bob's Red Mill) to avoid any bean-y flavour.

Turtles are some of my favorite holiday treats! My grandma makes boxes and boxes of them every year. She ties them up in little red bows and as kids we would pass them out to all of our homeroom teachers, administrators, etc. Clicking over now to see you recipe :)

Oh I love chewy oatmeal cookies with tons of texture and Turtles! These are a perfect cookie for me! And of course that you just nailed them, even being vegan and GF, even better! I bet the dates keep them soft, chewy and pack in the moisture, too! pinned

Bahahaha! When I saw these my eyes lit up and was like “OMG, I LOVE YOU!!” then I read you weren’t sharing the recipe and instantly was devastated… I wish U could have seen how quickly my smile became a frown. You are a tricky little lady. Thanks for the recipe.. I might have to bump out another cookie in the Christmas baskets this year!! But, I suppose one can never have too many cookies! That’s like complaining you have too much money lol :)

Angela,
I used part almond flour part brown rice flour and part coconut flour instead of pamela’s mix, only because that is what I had on hand. Worked great! I doubt all almond flour would work though, since it is more oil/fat based than gf mixes. Just my thoughts :)

Hey there Angela, I was at WF today pounding back some Kombucha as I turned the corner in the store what did I see Not your book but it would have been cool if it was PROUDLY sittiing on the shelves of WF or Trader Joes, Sunflower/Sprouts market or In Canadas NAtural Health Food Stores. I hope one day I can go into WF and buy your book and heck Id pick up a case of Glo Bars too… Just sayin !Happy Holidays You!!!

Oh my….. screw the baking, I’ll just have the dough please! :) These look ridiculously good. Fun fact: When I was a kid, I loved eating frozen cookies too. My mum would freeze batches of oatmeal cookies (I’m assuming it was so that we wouldn’t eat them as fast), but that never stopped me. Must be an Angela quirk lol!

I made turtle oatmeal cookies today and they’re to die for, but definitely not as nutritious as yours – mine are an old family recipe with lots of butter, white sugar, and eggs. I’ll have to try these out for a less sinful alternative. We’ll see how the family likes them!

I also wonder about a flour swap, using spelt in place of the GF flour. I live in a very remote area and good GF flour isn’t really available but I want to make these to bring to my wheat sensitive sister for Christmas and spelt flour is what we have up here. Would you please be able to help me out with a substitution, how much should I use?
Thanks.

these look great … I’m wondering about substituting brown rice syrup for the maple syrup. It’s a much thicker, treacly consistency … but it’s what I have on hand, and we like to use what we have on hand. I also use brown rice syrup in my bijou peanut butter cups, which thickens the mixture like maple syrup does. Thanks for the recipe!

Ang, I made these this morning as a gift for a few friends. Holy moly they are delicious! I used coconut sugar in place of the sucanat and my own blend of gf flour, but kept everything else the same. It took so much will power not to drink the ‘wet’ ingredients before adding to the dry. Oh, and once you add the two mixtures, it was like toffee caramel heaven. My husband (who is VERY picky) stated that he would have no problem just eating the dough because it was SO good. I agree! Thanks!

Thank you Angela for that wonderful recipe :) Can’t wait to try it. I have a quick question though. I only have the Bob’s Mill gluten-free all-purpose flour mix at home. I don’t have access to the Pamela’s Brand in my region. So, I’m wondering if you have a homemade gluten-free all-purpose mix recipe to suggest me ? I pretty have most of all the gluten-free flour here, so I can definitely make an interesting mix. However, I don’t know which one to use and in what proportion. I would really appreciate if you can help me with this one :) Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend.

O.M.G.! I just made these. Best. Cookies. Ever! Amazing! Only thing I did was to make them half the size so I have more of them. I’ve baked them to take to my office on Monday, but they may not make it. Or I just have to bake another batch….. seriously fabulous!!!!!!

I was wondering if you have seen this website before and your thoughts on other butter replacements to use.
http://www.undergroundhealth.com/earth-balance-betrays-consumers-with-false-non-gmo-and-organic-claims/

OMG best cookies ever! Thank you! I made a couple of changes to mine based on what I had on had. 1. I used spelt flour. Not technically GF but my son is GF sensitive and can tolerate Spelt. 2. I used coconut sugar instead of succulent. 3. Instead of mini chips (Whole Foods was sold out!) I used the larger dark chocolate disk shape chips.
I would recommend more chopped dates in the recipe as I couldn’t really taste them in the cookies.
I would also recommend not making these on Dec 23 with the plan of using them for Santa’s cookies. I doubt I will be able to save 1 for him! haha

I made these tonight and my husband and I are already obsessed! So good…I hope the rest make it to our Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow! Also, I’m evil because I ate all the cookie dough before the husband came home ;)

These are fantastic! Thanks for sharing. I sent them to my in laws for Christmas and they were very much enjoyed. I tried them…or really, I tried four (!) before sending them and looked forward to making them again.
Tonight is the night! With snow on the way they seemed perfect, but I thought I’d share some variations I made… I didn’t want to use sugar since we are trying to avoid it, so I substituted date sugar (still used the maple syrup) also left out the chocolate (hard but true) and added a few more half pieces of toasted pecans. They are great, still!! I made my flour (thanks vitamix) using Isa’s recipe from her cookie cookbook.
Do you ever cook with date sugar?
Thanks for all the yummy recipes you share!
Julia

Whoops! I forgot to add the sugar and … They turned out lovely and sweet enough! Thanks for another scrumptious recipe. My only other variation was deliberate: using pumpkin seeds instead of pecans due to nut allergies. I love that I can rely on your recipes and make them work for my family!

This dough is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!!!! I cannot wait until the cookies are done…. maybe I will share some with my kids;-) I’m excited to try them right from the freezer…yum!! My favorite way to eat cookies– frozen!! I hate to admit it but I already devoured the Healthy Strawberry bars ( big family favorite) in 3 days…. I guess I did share 1/4 of the pan with my hubby. Keep posting more outstanding recipes!!!! Oh, fyi…I’m I. LUV with coconut sweet potato fries too!! Really just addicted to sweet potatoes, butternut squash, every orange veggie…

Hi Angela! I just took these out of the oven and they are delicious! I recently switched to a vegan diet and you and your site have been such an inspiration. I’ve made many recipes and my family can’t get enough, especially the pasta with avocado cream sauce…oh my!! Thank you for sharing your story, thoughts, and recipes. :)

Just made these with my daughters and we all gave them a big thumbs up! Adding this recipe to our other favorites from this season: Peanut “Better” Balls, Oat Squares with Chia Seed Jam, and that magnificent Best Shredded Kale Salad (E-V-E-R). Yours is the only site I’ve found where I’m confident enough to make a dish for company before I’ve tried it. You never disappoint! Keep rockin’ on.

I just made these and hooooly cow. My house smells like Christmas and I’m looking for “broken” ones that need to be eaten.

I skipped toasting the pecans and processing the oats, and I used the Bob’s AP GF flour, and they still turned out pretty great. Thanks for sharing this recipe! I can’t wait to bring these out at my Super Bowl party tomorrow.

I just made these for my book club and they are fantastic. I used sunflower seeds instead of pecans because I needed them to be nut free and I used whole wheat flour because I didn’t need them to be gluten free. My kids will love these too! Thanks for another fabulous recipe.

Loved the cookies…always trying to find great snack ideas with great ingredients for my 4 boys who are always looking for Oreos! Lol …I did not have any gluten free all purpose flour so i added some whole wheat flour, just had on hand,…did not have any dates…so I added a few raisins!!

All I have to say or should I say all they had to say was these are awesome Mom!
Thanks for the awesome reciepe!!

I just made these last night for the whole fam….everyone devoured them! I had run out of coconut sugar so I added 1/4 cup more maple syrup instead and they came out just devine!!! Thanks for this awesome recipe Angela!!!

I love these! I’ve made them three times in the past three weeks. For the last batch I doubled the amount of dates and omitted the chocolate chips and I have to say I love them even more that way than with the chocolate. Perfect nutty crunch with tea. Thank you Angela!

Just wanted to thank you a million times over for this magnificent recipe!!! I had a chocolate chip cookie craving, but the pact I made with myself is that I would have to make it from scratch. I did use regular AP flour and it still turned out great! I may try spelt next time. The toasted pecans really made a humongous difference; typically I get lazy and just put them in recipes raw and untested, but, boy, it was worth it to toast them! I just want you to know that my husband—a picky eater—told me to “keep this recipe because it is really good!” We both loved the dates, too. It is not as sweet as a raisin or cranberry, so it doesn’t overload the cookie’s flavor. Just an unbelievable cookie that I will be using this year for Christmas gifts. Hands down, the best cookie we’ve had to date! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

If I vacuum packed these, do you think they would keep for a month or two at room temperature? The reason I ask is because I am going to be in Alberta in the field, sleeping in tents for 2 months, but they do not have many Vegan food options for someone in the military. Soooo, I will be making lots of snack foods to bring with me alongside my raw protein supplements! Thanks!

I’ve been following your recipes for a while now & always enjoy them! Thank you so much for sharing such yumminess with us all, as these sure are tasty! I found it impossible to roll them into a ball as they were soooo sticky & crumbly though, so I baked them as one on a cookie sheet, then cut them into squares. Any thoughts around how to overcome this issue? Thanks again!

Hello! First off I love your cookbook! It’s amazing! I have a question…could I use noor dates instead of medjool dates? Do you know the difference? I accidentally picked up noor instead of medjool say Costco!

These were fabulous! I loved the “caramel-like” taste of the dates. I did, however, have an extremely hard time getting the dough to stick together when rolling the balls. I had more dough on my hands and had to coat my hands in flour with each roll. I gave up after 12 cookies and had the rest as a breakfast “granola” topped with greek yogurt, cherries, and milk! Just as tasty! :)

The last week or so has been chilly here in St. Louis…although we’re back into the eighties for the weekend…anyway, my kids were wanting cookies to go with fresh apple cider and I was looking for something different from the usual oatmeal cookies we make and this was so tempting. I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand and the rain discouraged me from a trip to the market so I improvised. Used some sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in place of the pecans, added some chia and hemp seeds for fun, included a “flax egg” to be safe. I’m sure they aren’t as delicious as your gorgeous version but they have certainly been thoroughly enjoyed in our house. I can’t wait to follow the recipe to the letter. Thinking of making a version with a little cocoa powder and instant coffee crystals…mocha turtle cookies seem like a yummy idea to me!

I made these yesterday and omg, they are so good! I’ve always loved raisin oatmeal cookies, but these are definitely 1000x better; the mix of flavours is great (and turtles were my favourites as a child too ;)). I froze them and I have to agree that they are at their best cold!

These are seriously fool proof! I’ve made them 3 times and every single time minds were BLOWN! (one time I subbed almonds for pecans and it worked out great) It’s my go to cookie, and I plan on making a huge batch for holiday baking this year. They are so incredibly delicious. Amazing job on these Angela.

I subbed all-purpose flour with sprouted spelt flour and the cookies turned out amazing!!! They are soft, chewy and simply irresistible! Had some with Coconut Bliss ice cream, it was heaven on earth!!! Thank you for sharing the recipe!!!!

This is the first recipe I made from this website and OMG!!! My very skeptical husband said I need to make these all the time. My three year old daughter smiled and ate happily when I gave her one of these cookies. These are my absolute favorite oatmeal cookie I’ve ever had. I will use this recipe whenever I need an oatmeal cookie!

These are great….a little late to this recipe, but so glad I tried it! Took a few of these to my grandma for card-playing snacks, and she loved them. Well, we all loved them…making another batch to share with a old friend over coffee…he’s a baker, so I hope he likes them as much as I do, and I am pretty sure it’ll be his first vegan cookie! Thanks again :)

Wow, just made these and they are INCREDIBLE! So decadent. So addicting. They definitely don’t taste as wholesome as they are! I love the addition of dates, they are perfectly turtley! When I tasted the batter I thought they might be a bit too sweet for me, but through baking the sweetness mellowed out. also FYI I used regular all purpose flour and it worked great!

Made these last night for my coworker’s last day before mat leave. They are SO FRIGGIN’ good! The “dough” is absolutely delicious raw – and no guilt because there are no raw eggs :)
And they turned out perfectly – love them. I threw in some extra chocolate chips (cause, why not?!) – I love these – they will be a new go-to comfort cookie. And I agree, they replace the basic oatmeal/raisin or oatmeal/chocolate cookie – the dates and pecans see to that!
thanks for another keeper, Angela!

All I can say is ‘Awesome’ vegan cookie recipe. Thank you for sharing.
I modified the recipe because I didn’t want brown sugar in them.

Instead of 1/2 cup brown sugar, I took 1/2 cup of puree dates and 1 tablespoon honey. Blend the dates with the wet ingredients and incorporate into dry ingredients.
In lue of chopped dates, I put dry blueberries. Raisins, dried apricots or any dried fruit would work.

The only thing I can complain about is that they take 12min to bake. In which time I ate 1/3 of the dough. Omgoodness soon good & tasty & crunchy edged. YuM
Made a 2nd batch with Walnuts vs Pecans – just as yummy

I had to replace so many ingredients because I didn’t have them in my pantry : Rye flakes instead of rolled oats, macadamia instead of pecans, coconut sugar instead of Sucanat, flax milk instead of almond milk and no vanilla extract :(
and to my surprise, it turned out AMAZING ! Crunchy and chewy at the same time, full of flavours and I couldn’t be happier ^^

I made these cookies to give to my neighbor, a sweet but ailing older man who lives alone. He always knocks on my door when he notices I have a package on my doorstep that I haven’t retrieved (I always forget to check the mail), so I wanted to repay his neighborly kindness with a bit of my own. I know he’s going to love these! I was originally planning to make your jumbo chocolate chunk cookies today, but I couldn’t find arrowroot flour, so I ended up going with these instead. They turned out so perfectly moist, chewy, and delicious! Sweet but not cloyingly so. I followed the recipe as-written except that I added chopped up chunks of 54% dark chocolate instead of chocolate chips. This one’s a keeper!

WOW, my family adored these! We made them with regular (not GF) flour, coconut sugar and without dates because we wanted to eat these immediately after reading about them and that’s all we had on hand. Needless to say, they were divine. I think the only thing I’d change next time (oh yes, there will be a quickly approaching next time) is that I’d add less sugar/maple syrup if I were to include dates. I felt like these were already on my extreme scale of sweetness and I don’t think I could’ve handled the sugar content if dates were added. Just a heads up for those also a bit sensitive to sweetness! Thank you for all the wonderful recipes as always–they’re so enjoyed both by my family and home and by my friends on campus!

I made these today, and they were delicious. Thank you for the recipe! I started following your blog and trying recipes 3 years ago, and now nearly all the meals I make come from your books or blog. I’ve been vegan for over 10 years, but was never much of a vegan cook until I found this website!

Hi Angela,
If you could please comment on why I could not get these to hold together. Every time I tried to roll them they crumbled so I put them in a smaller cookie sheet to bake them as bars. The batter was delicious, I made no substitutions so not certain what I did incorrectly. They are baking now – taking longer than if I had accomplished cookies.
Also, is the oven temperature 325 or 350 degrees – both temperatures are listed on the recipe.
Thank you so much for all you do and all of your delicious recipes!!

Hi Cyd, I’m so sorry to hear you ran into problems! I’m not sure what might have been the cause; I haven’t encountered this issue with these cookies before. Is it possible somewhere along the line your ratio of dry ingredients to wet got thrown off accidentally? On the plus side, it sounds like you made the best of the situation with those cookie bars–yum! In terms of oven temps, the pecans should be toasted at 325, and then the cookies baked at 350. Hope that helps clarify!

Hi Angela!
Thank you so much for sharing this gorgeous recipe! So glad I have found your website!
I have a question please, havent found the answer in comments here.
What is the best way to store these cookies to keep them fresh? Airtight container I guess? How long do you think they last until they go bad?
Keep on baking and blogging, please :)
Kat

I’m so happy you love the recipe, Kat. :) Yep, you got it! I’d recommend storing these cookies in an airtight container or zip bag in the fridge for a few days, or in the freezer in a freezer-safe, airtight container or zip bag for 2 to 4 weeks. Happy baking, Kat!

Hey Erin, I haven’t personally tried freezing it yet, but if you do I would suggest freezing a single cookie portion. That way, if it doesn’t work out you won’t ruin the entire dough. Hope this helps! And please let me know if you end up trying it out.

These were amazing! They are definitely near the very top of the list of my favourite cookies ever, vegan or not. Bonus: the dough is DELICIOUS and perfectly safe to eat! And they are decently healthy enough that I don’t feel guilty after eating one (or three lol).

Just made these – lovely combination of flavours. I did make a few substitutions though. First, having made recipes from this site before I know that I don’t have as big a sweet tooth as Angela- I left out the sugar and I reduced the amount of maple syrup by half, and they were just right for me. I added a tablespoon extra of almond milk to make up for the reduction in liquid. I didn’t have any vanilla, so left that out. I think baking soda is the equivalent of bicarbonate of soda, but since there was no acid in the recipe to activate it I used baking powder instead. (Dunno what the north American equivalent of that is!) I might leave it out next time just to see if it’s really needed. Might put in more dates next time too. But there will be a next time! Thanks for the recipe!

These cookies are wicked crazy delicious, Angela!! Knowing that our family loves Medjool Dates,, pecans, etc…, I went ahead and made a double batch! Definitely, NOT a mistake! That was a couple of weeks ago – tonight, I’m at it again.
I’ll be sharing again with our neighbors, and they are ALWAYS shocked that they’re vegan. No eggs? No butter? But, how?! ;-)
I have refrigerated this dough with great success. The dough is sticky to work with, so I put it in the fridge for 1/2 hour. It’s much more manageable to shape.
As well, refrigerating the dough for 4 days and baking a fresh batch is fine.q

Hey Denise, I love the way you think!! Double batch? Yes please! And thanks for the tip on chilling the dough for up to 4 days…that’s really helpful to know. And thanks for your sweet words about the cookbooks and app…it means the world to me.

Hey Night, Gluten-free AP flour (which is what I used) tends to be more “thirsty” due to the starches, so this may be why your dough was too sticky with the pastry flour. I like the chilling the dough idea too! Always a great tip when the dough is sticky. I’m so happy you still loved the cookies. :)

Made these last night with my 16 yo daughter who tricked them out even more. She made a chocolate drizzle out of enjoy life chips & coconut oil and caramel drizzle out of coconut sugar, almond milk and coconut oil. Oh my word they are so good!! This is an awesome recipe. We couldn’t stop ourselves from devouring the dough either. We will be making these many more times to come! Thanks for the perfect healthy cookie that tastes sinful.

Angela, I make these for presents, put them in a pretty can and people always offer the cans back and ask for refills. They’re the best cookies ever, and to be honest, I have them for breakfast as well. I sub maple syrup sometimes for rice syrup if its not in the pantry, or dark brown sugar for light but I pretty much stick to your recipe. It. Is. Fabulous. Thank you!

Hey Tess, This is such a great idea! What lucky friends you have. :) I love that you can swap out the sugars and it still works too. The nutty base in the cookie dough is just fabulous isn’t it? I’ve made these with walnuts instead of pecans and it works too.

i used to make these cookies all of the time, forgot about them and found them on my pinterest board again last week. I just made them, and they just come out so perfectly every time! you nailed this recipe Angela! :)

A little on the sweet side for me but so Delicious! I doubled the recipe and made these with all purpose flour and regular oats. I also ran out of maple syrup so I had to use 1/2 cup maple and 1/2 cup agave. The cookie dough was a little tricky at first but as it sat for a few minutes it became more cohesive. After tasting the dough it was very sweet so I omitted the dates and put very few chocolate chips. I used a small cookie scoop so I didn’t have to get my hands too sticky. Will make again. Thank you so much Angela for sharing a wonderful recipe!